Randstad Workmonitor results wave 4, 2010

All over the world employees are optimistic about the financial future of their employers- with the exception of Japan - which translates in (high) expectations with regard to improvements of their own primary conditions of employment. Employees in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Turkey in particular have high expectations for 2011 in this respect. On the other hand, expectations to receive a financial bonus at year-end in 2010 are low in most countries although many employees do feel they are entitled to an extra financial reward given their achievements this year.

Besides financial improvements employees are keen on improving their work-life balance in 2011. All over the world this seems to be an important New Years resolution or goal for employees especially in Mexico (97%), Chile (97%) and Argentina (96%). Next to this, especially in China (88%), India (84%) and Mexico (76%) employees are looking for a promotion next year.

Employee confidence remains stable

In the third wave we saw an increase in confidence in finding a new job within six months whether it be a different or comparable job - compared to the second wave whereas now in most countries this level is the same as in the third wave. Confidence decreased in Spain, Greece, Japan and the UK, the latter showing the biggest decrease (-9%).

India is the only country where employees have gained confidence in finding a comparable job (5% to 90%). At the same time, the fear of losing their job has also increased in the last wave. Within Europe Belgian, Danish and Swiss employees are more afraid of losing their job than they were three months ago. This results in a slightly higher overall level of employees who fear losing their job (1%).

Mobility increases further highest in India

Since the beginning of 2010 the mobility index is increasing steadily and this trend continued in the 4th wave (3 points). The indexes in India, Switzerland and Denmark even increased by ten or more points and with the number 153 India has the highest mobility index of all 27 countries in the survey. The increase in these countries can partly be explained by the increased number of employees who fear losing their job.

This increased fear does not translate in an increase in employees actively looking for another job, this figures remains stable.

Job satisfaction remains high on average
Increase of mobility is not because employees are less satisfied with their current job. In most countries the level of satisfaction remained the same. Turkey is the only country where satisfaction increased (from 66% to 72%). The Netherlands has the highest number of (very) satisfied employees (80%). On average employees in European countries are equally satisfied as their colleagues in Australia, the US and Canada. Asian countries show the lowest employer satisfaction rates, with the lowest number (39%) coming from Japan.

Personal motivation: focus on promotion highest in India, lowest in Sweden
Overall one out of five employees says they are strongly focused on getting a promotion. This is the same as three months ago. In India 85% of the employees say there are (somewhat) focused on promotion. Mexico has the highest percentage of employees who are strongly focused on getting a promotion (46%). Only in Turkey the level improved compared to three months ago. In Denmark and Japan the figure is lower than in wave 3 leaving Denmark, together with Norway with the smallest percentage of employees being strongly focused on promotion (6% and 5% respectively).